Do you think it is too harsh to flog a woman for drinking beer?

This is a sensitive issue, as it relates to religious beliefs. Most of the punishments in the religion were already part of the system. Many seems to be harsh, but there are strong arguments for it. Another thing to remember is that in the religion punishments are not supposed to be meted out without proper investigations. Unfortunately in many parts of the Islamic world decisions were made without following proper procedures. In the case of the woman she was caught in the open, and admitted to it. If she had done it in private, she could escape the punishment, since it would be harder to prove her guilt. I am not offended, nor angry. Sometimes we have to listen properly to understand the situation. Side-tracking a bit to illustrate this point, Muslims have been ridiculed for not eating one particular animal. There is something that it carries and cannot be killed with medication. Now a world wide spread of a fever associated with it is causing fear among some people. By the way he full name betrays her true origin.

That is just fact of life living under Islamic law. In Malaysia, two set of laws are implemented on their population , one for the Muslim and the other for the non Muslim. The religion court judge has the authority to render judgment and whatever punishment he seem fit, even though he is not God, he believed he is the chosen one and all Muslims believe in him too in dealing with the interpretation of sharia in the Koran. I had seem a young university couple got public canning for meeting each others in the girl's dorm room in Indonesia few year ago by their religion court, it is appalling to see all those onlookers cheered while the religion department officials carried out the sentence. In Singapore, its government and people are much more civilized and educated than many of its neighbors. My friend, you are fortunate to live in Singapore.

I do think it is too harsh, but I have no say in the matter and they don't care about my opinion. It's their religion and whatever we think of their laws and punishments, we have to accept their right to administer it as they see fit. The woman had a choice whether to obey her religion's laws or break them and she chose to break them. I'm sympathetic to her but she did make the choice. I hope that it's not too bad for her when her sentence is carried out.